Americans living in the South have lower five-year survival rates after an HIV or AIDS diagnosis when compared with the overall U.S. HIV-positive population. Researchers analyzed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance data regarding Americans diagnosed with HIV through 2011 and about those living with the virus through 2010. They published their findings in the Journal of Community Health.

“This research documents the dire consequences that having an HIV diagnosis in the Deep South region has for too many individuals,” Duke University law professor Carolyn McAllaster, who directs the Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative and the Duke law school’s AIDS/HIV and Cancer Legal Project, said in a press release.

The nine states in the region were Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. In 2011, these states had an HIV diagnosis rate of 24.5 per 100,000 people, compared with a national rate of 18 per 100,000 people. People living with HIV in the Southern states are more likely to be black, female, younger, and living in suburban or rural areas than those in the country as a whole. Southerners are also more likely to report heterosexual sex as the source of their infection.

The Southerners diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and 2004 had a five-year survival rate of 85 percent, while those diagnosed with AIDS had a 73 percent survival rate, compared with a respective 86 percent and 77 percent nationally. HIV-positive Southerners had the lowest five-year survival rate among any U.S. region.

The researchers did not find that regional differences in demographics or the mode of transmission explained the higher death rate in the South. Lead author Susan Reif, PhD, MSW, of the Duke Global Health Initiative, theorizes that poverty, lower education levels, lower insurance coverage, HIV stigma, and racism all play a part in the disparity.

To read the study, click here.

To read the press release, click here.